Boyfriend out of welding work - please help.

lacoste1985_2

Hi fellow MSE's

I have a problem which may come across as relatively unimportant to some but here goes. My boyfriend and I have been seeing eachother for the past 6 years - he is 28 and i am 24. We have never lived together and both still live at home with parents. He is a qualified welder who has worked in various engineering companies over the last 10 years, however last Dec he was made redundent from a job he'd been in for the past 5 years as a welder/fabricator.

He was given about 2 months notice before the company had to let him go and received a good payout of about 8k in total. As you are probably thinking he is and has been looking for a new job for nearly a year now but has only managed to find 2 temp welding jobs since the beginning of 2009, where he worked for a total of 7 weeks. He hasnt worked since June and its really getting him down.....i think he may be suffering from depression.

Hes emailed, posted and hand delivered numerous amounts of CV's over the past year and scours the Job Centre Plus website on a daily basis looking for new jobs.....yet there doesnt seem to be any welding/fabricating jobs or very few. He also checks the computers in the job centre when he goes to sign on every fortnight and is constantly asking friends if they have any vacancies in their workplaces.

I actually have 2 jobs - a full time office job working for local government and a part time saturday job working for WHSmith, which I think is making my partner feel even more worthless....he doesnt have many qualifications and left school with only a handful of GCSE's..hes done 2 NVQ Level 2 courses in Welding - both with different employers and thats pretty much it.

Last weekend was a pretty bad weekend for both of us. I was asked whether the fact that hes on the dole bothers me, if i still love him, why do i want to go out with a 'dole bum' as he refers to himself sometimes etc etc. Its starting to get me down and is really coming between us.....i just want him to get some work and FAST.....i dont know how much more of his aggressive and pitiful attitude I can take.

Ive helped him as much as I can - from re-vamping his CV to helping him put covering letters together. My eyes are always open as I walk past job agency windows and when im reading newspapers etc. He suggested taking a change in career as he thinks if he leaves it much longer its going to be too late, he'll be too old to re-train etc.....he already goes on about how hes nearly 30, still living at home etc and doesnt think he has anything going for him. Hes talked about potentially retraining to be a computer programmer/software designer or something along those lines. I think he got this idea from a friend of his who has been very successful in his career in programming and who just has a 'knack' for the subject.

My boyfriend on the other hand, without putting him down too much only managed to get an F in GCSE Maths, doesnt even have GCSE English let alone ICT! Where would he need to begin if he really did want to retrain and try a different career path? I think its too far fetched if I'm honest...hes a practical minded individual, not an academic one and I dont think a desk job of any kind would suit him. I want to support him in whatever he chooses to do though so suggested he looks at doing a basic IT course to begin with to see if he likes working with computers initially. I suggested CLAIT to him.....does anyone know whether this is a good starting point or know of any other courses that would be good for beginners?

I think he may be dyslexic aswell as he struggles with basic spelling, reading and writing.....he can read but very slowly and his handwritings atrocious....he cant even spell the most basic words!!

I just dont know where to go with this.....are there any other welders on here who are in the same or a similar situation....perhaps you can offer some advice....or know where there might be some jobs available!??

Cheers guys

x

cavework

Oh Lacoste, My Oh is 60 .. had the same job for 18 years ..30k a year .
Company was bought out and the work force were locked out. Took over 12 months to get his redundancy payments because new owner would not put the company into liquidation.
He got another job.. lower wage but a job.. 18 months later?
Redundant, company closed down..
He started his own business 12 months ago , nothing to do with his trade.. it's been tough but we are still paying the mortgage etc and things are looking up, not loaded but making ends meet
Last Xmas there were no presents and we have 2 kids..
Tell your boyfriend redundancy is not the end of the world, he is young and has a trade. Tell him to get out there and sell himself and at 28 the world really is his oyster.
Good luck

ailuro2

Has he though about going offshore?
He would need the proper survival certificate (can't remember what it's called)

Also, is he a coded welder, or just an ordinary welder - there's a difference - maybe he could find a way to get a grant to take him up to coded welder status, that way he's investing this 'down' time into better future earnings. Coded welders can do all types of welding work, whereas some work is not suitable for non coded welders, hope that makes sense to you.(e.g. pressure vessels and things, where the weld have to be x-rayed)

I've worked in engineering with enough folks to know engineering types' spelling is on average, atrocious - I think it's something to do with the brain being very good at logical thinking that makes it less good at spelling.:p It wouldn't do him any harm to work on his basic literacy, though, and to broach the subject of dyslexia - once you know for sure there are things to be done to help - transparent coloured sheets to go over text helps make it easier to read for some dyslexics, for example.

I think working on these things would help raise his self esteem too (and help with the boredom).

Good Luck to you both!

SailorSam

Where i use to live, one of my neighbours was a welder and made redundant, he started making wrought iron gates. He bought an old ambulance and converted it into a workshop, Like anyone else self employed he had good and bad weeks , as well as gates he'd do other bits , welding cars etc.
Just a thought.

cavework

Ailuro,
It's a pity that there are not people like you employed in the job centres.
Too many people with a trade are told to change direction instead of being told to enhance the qualifications they already have worked hard to obtain.

speedster

i got out of welding at 30 and went into construction and haven't looked back since. best thing i'd done.

i had numerous codings. they run out after 5 years anyway and you'd be hard pushed to find anyone other that your employer to pay for them. they were a couple of grand when i was doing them in the 90's. 5g pipe, tig root with arc cap was the highest i got. would have loved to go for a 6g pie with arc. but never got the chance.

14 years of welding took it's toll on my eyes and my night driving aint what it used to be. dunno how much worse they'd be now if i was still in the game.plus i don't cough up big green lumps every morning now either!!

if he's on the dole, there's a whole world of training to be had. i did a few courses myself in the past, from vehicle maintenance to design. they're free, so get him to have a go at a few. it makes you feel more worthy if you're learning something new too.

sieze the moment and turn it into your advantage.

KittyBoo_2

The local Adult Education Centre would be a good place to start if he needs help with Basic Skills.
They have specialist tutors who are are trained to work with adults.
They also have Advice and Guidance workers usualy based in the Centres who can help him with his CV, relevant courses and offer support and advice regarding testing him for Dyslexia.
There are alot of ICT courses run at these Centres for the absolute beginner to the more advanced student.
Some are free but he will need to get the local Centre brochure or look for the nearest one online and then access their course programme that way.
There is alot of support out there and I know that, as I had to help my son get on the right track.
He left school with no qualifications although he was a bright lad and just drifted for a while.
He went to a training centre and learned how to be a welder and he has now got his codings.
He recently started college 2 evenings a week and is paying for this himself as he is working full time and can't get any help.
Your boyfriend needs to talk to someone at the Job Centre about what training opportunities and funding are available.
Good luck.

cavework

Dipsticks do not get qualifications in welding
Tell him to get out there and like someone has already said 'seize the moment'
xx

speedster

cavework wrote: »

Dipsticks do not get qualifications in welding
Tell him to get out there and like someone has already said 'seize the moment'
xx

very true.

4 years of college covering all 4 processes. metallic and gaseous properties and metallurgy. formulas, co-efficiency of linear expansion etc, etc. the list goes on and on.

this guy is qualified, so he's not just a MIG monkey, so he should be able to have a go at anything that takes his fancy.

Claire_Bear

I think Welding jobs are thin on the ground at the moment, my dad has been welding and plating all his life, has been on the dole more times than he can count, and is currently working away from home as it was the only job going. As he was recently telling me, he has a folder from one time when he was out of work with over 100 rejection letters in it, and they were just the ones who bothered to send him a letter :eek: I feel bad for your boyfriend, being on the dole doesn't make you a bad person, in fact you have to respect him for being in the welding trade as it is, from what my dad's told me the conditions can be awful, not something that most people could do. I think all he can do is try to hear things through word of mouth, the benefit of my dad working in so many places is that he has a large widespread number of people that he knows from different places, and they'll share information with him if there's work going anywhere. Sorry I can't be anymore help, and hope he finds something soon

GotToChange

There is such a lot of good advice, I can hardly add much. I agree though that he is far from stupid to have become a welder in the first place and good for him for sticking with it. Having said that, it will make an old man out of him too soon if he stays with it for life... (I was married to a welder and I hated what it did to him, despite state of the art extraction equipment.)

He could do worse than look at off-shire as suggested upthread or even consider looking at working overseas (my XH went to work in Holland for a month at a time when our daughter was only 2; our relationship survived that, other things killed it off) - or even emigrating (with you of course!). welders have always been and still are on the Occupational Priority List for either Oz or NZ or both.

It is a tough time for you both, I wish you well.

x